This week, four new mastering orders came in. Two arrived with something other than a WAV, one had a WAV with the wrong name on it, and one was right the first time. Three of the four took at least one more email before I had what I needed to start.
Nobody did anything wrong. These are normal mistakes, and they're easy to make, because there are several ways to send someone a song and only one of them gives me what mastering needs.
Here's what came in. One customer sent a Suno share link, then a file from the Suno phone app, which arrived as an M4A. One sent an MP3. One sent a WAV, which was exactly right, except the file name was an earlier working title, and the real title came by email the next day. The fourth sent WAVs with the clearest edit note I got all week. I can't tell you why anyone sent what they sent. I didn't ask. I can tell you what each one does when it lands on my end.
Suno is the example here because it's what my customers use. The question underneath works anywhere: am I sending the song, or a way to listen to it?
A share link plays the song. It doesn't hand it over.
A Suno share link opens a page where your song streams. I can listen to it as many times as I want. I can't download it, and I can't master audio I can't load into a session. A share link is for sending a song to a friend. For mastering, I need the file.
The phone app gives you a smaller file
When you download from the Suno phone app, you get a compressed file, not a WAV. The one I got this week was an M4A. Compression makes a file smaller by throwing audio information away, and I can't put back what's gone. That matters in mastering because mastering raises the level of everything in the file, the artifacts included.
Email isn't built for WAVs
WAV files are too big for most email attachments. The email arrives with the file name and no file.
How to get the WAV out of Suno
Do this on a computer, not your phone. Go to suno.com and sign in. Open your Library and find the song. Click the three dots (...) next to the song, then Download, then WAV Audio. That's the file.
If your plan has no WAV option, that's fine. Download the MP3 from the same menu and send that. I'll master from it. A WAV gives me more to work with, but an MP3 isn't a dead end, and I'd rather master the song you can send than have you stall on a file you can't get.
How to send it
Upload the file to a Google Drive or Dropbox folder and share the link. That kind of link is the opposite of a Suno share link. It points at the actual file, and I can download it. If you're ordering from me, you can skip even that step. I set up a Drive folder for every order, so you drag the file in and you're done.
Name it what it's called
Put the final song title in the file name before you send it. The title on the file is the title that ends up on the master and in the Mastering Dossier, the write-up that comes back with every master documenting what I did and why. If you're still choosing between two titles, choose first. A file called "new song v3 final" makes me guess, and your release is the wrong place for me to guess.
Say where, not how it feels
If you want an edit, tell me exactly where. The clearest note I got this week was six words: "one beat of silence around 3:27." Before I opened the session I knew where to go, what to change, and how long the change should last. Words like "bigger" or "more space" give me a mood. A timestamp gives me a location. Every master includes one revision, and a vague note is the fastest way to spend it.
Before you send anything, check three things:
The right file: a WAV if you have one, an MP3 if you don't. No share links.
The right title: the final title in the file name.
Clear notes: what you want changed, with a timestamp.
The five minutes you spend on the handoff are the cheapest part of a better master. Everything after that is my job.
Josh, Founder, JG BeatsLab
When the file's ready, mastering is $50 a song.
